Permeable Pavement Pros and Cons

Permeable pavement is becoming increasingly popular in cities around the world. Its applications are residential, municipal and commercial. For instance, it’s being used to pave driveways, patios, residential roads, cycle-paths, sidewalks, parking lots, and more. Primarily, it’s environmentally beneficial; it helps to counter the negative effects of the urbanization of our landscape. Additionally, there are financial benefits to its installation. However, there are some issues to bear in mind. So, let’s explore permeable pavement pros and cons.

Permeable Pavement Pros and Cons

Permeable Pavement Pros: 

• Eliminates stormwater and surface run-off.
• Mitigates flooding. 
• Replenishes aquifers.
• Prevents stormwater pollution from running into the sewers and into rivers, streams and our water supply.
• Cools surface temperatures and the surrounding air. Reducing the urban heat island effect.
• Circumvents the need for traditional stormwater infrastructure.
• Saves developers money as a Low-Impact Development (LID) strategy.
• During winter, snow melts 50% faster.
• Plus, requires 50% less salt or other de-icing products than traditional pavement types.

Permeable Pavement Cons:

Certain types of permeable pavements are not as strong as their conventional versions. For example, concrete and asphalt. Therefore, they’re not recommended for highways and heavy loading areas. However, PurePave’s intelligent formula creates high strength surfacing. It’s 6X stronger than asphalt, 1.6X stronger than cement.

Permeable pavement is more expensive to install. Though, permeable pavement does circumvent the need for traditional stormwater infrastructure and saves developers money as a Low-Impact Development (LID) strategy. Also, owing to the risk of particles clogging permeable pavement pores, some types of pervious pavements need costly, regular maintenance. Note, this is not the case with PurePave.

Further, with PurePave, you will pay a little more up front when compared to conventional, non-porous surfaces. However, future maintenance savings are significant. Moreover, you get all the benefits that come with a permeable, Earth Conscious Surfacing™. In addition, when compared to permeable pavers, PurePave is more cost effective to both install and maintain.

Click here to read a Toronto Star article about a PurePave, net-zero run-off property in Toronto.